Grand Challenges in Sustainable Food Processing

Sustainability is, unquestionably, a main driver for social, technological, and economic development toward the creation of a circular economy. This is even more important in the food industry as this issue of sustainability also demands that we are able to provide consumers with, not only high quality food, but, above all with food that complies with safety and security. WHO estimates that, every year, more than 600 million people—this means 1 out of 10 people—get ill by ingestion of contaminated food and that the number of casualties is estimated as 420,0001. Moreover FAO estimates that one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year (FAO, 2011). This inevitably also means that huge amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain, and that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food that gets lost or wasted are also emissions in vain. It is also interesting to note that, on a per-capita basis, much more food is wasted in the industrialized world than in developing countries. Having said this, it is clear that sustainability (Ehrenfeld and Hoffman, 2013) is a key driver for the food industry. However, a successful food industry sector, cannot be supported by safety and security considerations, only. Consumers are more and more demanding and, in particular in developed countries, are also linking food with health, thus demanding food industry and food technologists to provide foods that, in complement to their nutritional and organoleptic properties, can also contribute to a healthier life. Although suggesting that these issues raise difficulties in fulfilling the consumer needs, it is also clear that new business opportunities are created and, as shown throughout this document, opportunities for raising value from wastes are now a great challenge that will also contribute for the development of healthier foods as well as for the implementation of a circular economy in the sector. In order to answer satisfactorily to these demands, the food industry must evolve processing technologies that are effective not only in processing food materials in a way that minimizes the degradation of the components that are relevant for health and well-being, but are also able to incorporate materials in the processed foods that allow for an increase in these properties. Moreover, these objectives must be fulfilled by complying with another key issue in food (and industrial) processing—sustainability—in such way that circular economy2 becomes a reality in the food industry. This demands more efficient and environmentally friendly food processing technologies and process integration together with waste minimization and recovery and incorporation of food by-products in the food processing chain. New solutions on packaging are also required as 335 million tons of non-biodegradable/non-compostable plastics are produced annually, with the food sector being responsible for a large percentage